The owner of an influential rap blog has died. Early reports say that the entrepreneur succumb to Covid complications, MTO News has learned.
Raysean Autry was co-founder of KollegeKidd.com, a hip hop news and culture site that has more than 1.2million followers on Instagram.
Raysean’s grieving brother PJ Taylor, 29, exclusively told The Sun: “He passed away on December 29 from Covid pneumonia.
“He had been hospitalized for at least a couple of weeks in Toledo, Ohio.
“He was 34 years old. We were blindsided by his death. We couldn’t even celebrate the holidays.
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“His brother Rich is still in the hospital. They were on the same floor.”
Raysean’s twin brother Rich is the other co-founder of KollegeKidd.com.
The pair started the blog together in November 2011 and built it into a leading news source for hip hop on the internet.
PJ explained that the family has not told Rich yet to protect him while he battles Covid.
He said: “Rich doesn’t know yet. He’s still in the ICU. We don’t want to tell him and elevate his vitals and something goes wrong.
“I don’t think he will know until after Ray is buried, January 10 is the date right now.
“He’s going to be buried in Toledo but we’re still picking the cemetery.”
PJ added: “Ray and Rich had been living in LA but they had been back in Toledo for months and they got ill here.
“They made a success of Kollege Kidd since the beginning when they were in the dorm rooms.
“It was just hard work at a point in time before it was even profitable. They had to choose to get rid of one and they got rid of sleep, man.
“They had to go to work, come home, work on Kollege Kidd. That would just be it.
“You would just see them working on Kollege Kidd 24/7, just be with each other 24/7.
“Until this day, while they was still in the hospital bed they’d still be posting until they couldn’t no more.”
Raysean leaves behind a daughter, who PJ said is “older than 10 now.”
